Think Big: Meet New People, Target important contacts, Touch Movers & Shakers
Think Small: Stay within your current group of contacts and colleagues.

Think Big: Spend money, Invest in your business, Grow your career.
Think Small: Don’t spend money, hunker down and wait for the issues to go away.

Think Big: Speak in front of people, Go after bigger and bigger groups, Attract influentials.
Think Small: Keep your ideas to yourself, Think of writing a book, Never complete it.

Think Big: Take on more than you can chew, Push yourself, Reach higher (and higher).
Think Small: Keep things in context, Don’t push yourself, Stay within your box.

Think Big: Inspire people, Get their attention, Be a BILLBOARD.
Think Small: Do the same things and expect a different outcome.

Think Big: Challenge yourself, Change the game, Make It HAPPEN.
Think Small: Be content.

Think Big: Consult with experts, Ask questions, Challenge the status quo.
Think Small: You know enough.

Think Big: GROW.
Think Small: SHRINK.

It’s that simple.

I’ve been busy the last few weeks.

In addition to coaching a full practice of clients, my action team meetings started this week (say goodbye to Monday nights). So the production end of my business is ‘full-steam ahead’.

But I also got up early every morning over the past two weeks (4:30 AM) to attend various networking/sales meetings to spread the word of the Rich Gee Group.

And I gave a major presentation Thursday to a business group (50+ executives) about how to market themselves. It was a big hit for me – most attendees gave me a 4 to 5 rating (on a scale of 1-5).

So the ‘development’ end of my business was in full gear too. What did it deliver? I received an avalanche of interest in my coaching and my phone has been off the hook. In addition, my site numbers are through the roof and I have a pack of new business cards that can choke a horse (all to enter today into my contact list for eBlasts).

Why am I telling you all this? Not to brag (even though it is bragging . . . ). But to illustrate HOW TO GET CLIENTS.

Get out there and SHAKE HANDS. Get out there and be visible. Get out there and BE A BILLBOARD.

You are the product – get others to meet you, talk with you, experience you. “Take you out for a test drive” as I call it.

Don’t hover over your laptop all day. Get OUT and MEET people. It’s that easy.

Thank you again for attending my workshop this morning!

First off, thank you to Isaiah, Ginny & Owen — THE consummate hosts. I run workshops all across the country in many venues — they were perfect professionals (they covered ALL the bases), the location was smashing, and any request was met with a smile. Kudos!

As promised, here are the links to access the full presentation and the article I mentioned. I hope you enjoy using them to accelerate your job search:

Market Yourself To Success – Toot Your Own Horn Without Blowing It— Full Presentation (6mb)

My “Marketing Matrix” Tool — Step-By-Step Article

Your Business – 10 Tips For Willing In A Bad Economy
I did a whirlwind tour of this presentation at many business groups over the past 10 months — people were taking 2 and 3 copies after my talk.

Matt Harding Video (big hit!) - Click Here

FINALLY . . .
By the way, if you have changed your mind and would like a complimentary coaching session, don’t hesitate — give me a call at 203.500.2421. I only offer 2 spots a week – they fill up fast.

Otherwise – Enjoy the rest of August and hope to see you again!

Regards – Rich Gee

1. Deal with the obstacle – live with it.
2. Go around the obstacle – find other ways to make something happen.
3. Obliterate the obstacle – get rid of it.

Pianist Liu Wei does all three and “makes it happen”!

Fairchester Business Group - Complete (we had a BALL!)
“Market Yourself to Success: Toot Your Own Horn Without Blowing It”
Thursday, August 19 – 7:30 to 9:30 AM

http://www.fairchesterbusinessresource.org/

American Marketing Association
“Brand Yourself In Today’s Job Market – Toot Your Own Horn Without Blowing It”
Wednesday, September 8 – 6 to 8 PM

http://www.americantowns.com/ct/norwalk/news/ama-fairfield-county-chapter-proudly-presents-toot-your-own-horn-911810

Westport Library
October 5 – 8 AM
“Jobseeker Special: Take Action!”

http://www.westportlibrary.org/events/2010/10/jobseeker_special_jobseeker_sp.html

Wilton Public Library
“The Message is the Medium – New Ways to Connect with Customers: LinkedIn”
Tuesday, November 9 – 8 to 9:30 AM

http://www.wiltonlibrary.org/

Bethel Public Library
“Get Tough: The Best Jobs Are Never Advertised” with Margo Meeker!
Tuesday, November 16  - 7 to 9:00 PM

http://www.bethellibrary.org/

Wilton Public Libraray
“The Message is the Medium – New Ways to Connect with Customers: WordPress Blogs”
Tuesday, November 23 – 8 to 9:30 AM

http://www.wiltonlibrary.org/

What can you do RIGHT NOW to add this kind of focus and customer service to what you do?

Make It Happen. NOW.

Small Business Action Team – In Process – NO MORE SEATS
You have your own business . . .You’re no longer in the corporate rat-race and you’re out to conquer the world! Congratulations!  BUT, this won’t happen if you are frustrated or feeling overwhelmed when you are unsure about how to market and grow your business.

Click Here To Learn More

Job Search Action Team - In Process – NO MORE SEATS
The economy is not getting any better . . .You’re out on the street looking for that next big position — but the pickings are slim to none. And Slim’s out of town. Frustrated? Feeling overwhelmed? Unsure where to look? Are you beginning to question your professional abilities?

Click Here To Learn More

Career Change Action Team - FULL – NO MORE SEATS
Day-in, day-out . . . commute to work, bad bosses, small cubicle, horrendous meetings, cancelled projects . . . And then a long, traffic-filled commute home (with additional work after dinner). And you start all-over again the next day. Or you’re out of work and really don’t want to go back to that horrible 9-5 existence. It’s time for you to make a change . . . NOW.

Click Here To Learn More

Leadership Action Team – FULL – NO MORE SEATS
What is a good leader? Is it the ability to navigate in the choppy waters of change? Do leaders see the hidden opportunity in every setback? Is there really any such thing as a ‘born leader’? Stepping into a leadership position can be easy — provided there’s plenty of time to prepare. But today, people at all levels are increasingly landing in leadership positions on very short notice, equipped with no formal training, preparation or hands-on experience. Click Here To Learn More

OR . . . Call me now to learn more – 203.500.2421

- Walt Disney

In the middle of all the excitement and relaxation, my business mind was constantly going. I am very observant when it comes to viewing high level operational, organizational and customer service processes. And candidly, I saw a bunch of them:

• When we returned to our room (we stayed on-site) we found the room attended to by our maid, but the TV was left on. How strange! Then we turn to one of the beds and find my son’s stuffed character Stitch sitting upright on the bed with the TV remote in his hand. It blew us away and we doubled her tip at the end of our trip.
• Our son had a broken arm (not bad, but it is in a cast) – and during our entire stay, whenever we had an interaction with a Disney cast member (that’s what they call them, not employees) they would inquire with my son and then go out of their way to make the situation that much more special. They would give him stickers, or a better table, or faster service.
• The grounds were immaculate. No trash, nothing. They were even replacing old bushes with new grass around the resort walkway. In 100 degree heat. They were also repainting the main convention building even though for the life of me tell where it actually needed painting. It looked fine to me.
• Finally, at the resort’s pool, the lifeguards were not only plentiful (9-10 on duty at any one time and this was not a big pool), but when some were on, the others jumped into the pool and got the guests to have a tug of war or a marco polo contest. They were even challenging the guests to volleyball!

Now that is customer service and attention to your clients needs.

What do you do currently that goes above and beyond your current customer service?

From

“Venus Williams just keeps letting this happen to her, and she throws up her hands as if there is nothing she can do about it.

She had been playing her best tennis in years, and had a shot at moving to No. 1 in the world rankings, where she has spent just 11 weeks in her long career. And then she had an off day Sunday. Now, she’s gone. Williams lost 6-4, 6-3 to Nadia Petrova in the fourth round at Roland Garros. It’s clear now why Williams has never won the French Open, and never will. It’s not about a lack of ability or comfort on clay.

It’s unbelievable that someone who has been so great for so long would allow herself to play for all these years without a safety net. She has no adjustments to make, no alterations.

On hot days, the red clay is fast and on cold days it’s slow. On wet days, even stickier. On Sunday, it was raining and windy, too. Nothing stays the same, and even on the best of days, you can’t just impose physical strength on your opponent, the way Williams plays. The ball slows down when it bounces in this dirt, and gives players a chance to catch up to the power.

Sometimes it happens? Then why not be ready for it? Don’t you have to make adjustments?”

Greg is spot on with Venus. Now here’s the kicker . . . he sounds like me when I first talk to my clients. Things have been going so well for so long, then all of a sudden, everything falls apart. It’s like their career or business just had a 4-6, 3-6 game and they don’t know what to do. They’ve been playing their power game all along and the whole world around them has changed.

And it hits you smack in the center of your face just like a tennis ball. You suddenly realize that you no longer are employed, you’re handling multiple positions that have been eliminated, or a majority of your clientele have disappeared. How do you fix this?

It’s called FLEXIBILITY. LIMBERNESS. AGILITY. React to external conditions as they change (and you can bet your bottom dollar they will) and take steps to be flexible, limber and agile.

Here are some tips:

• Keep your eyes open. Major career or business changing events usually don’t happen in an instant. There are predictors and subtle changes that should be alerting you. People just don’t listen or they obstinately keep their eyes closed to the problem(s). When you see something begin to happen, take some time out to look out on the horizon. What is changing? For the better? For the worse? Who’s leaving the company? What projects are being cut? Who is disappearing from certain projects?
• Set goals. It’s that easy. Most executives and business-owners don’t have goals. They just trundle along with no targets to hit. You’re asking for trouble.
  Businesses – look at your last 12 months gross revenue, pick your three best months, average them and that is your current target for each month. If you want to be agressive, raise it by 5%.
  Executives – How is your project/department progressing? Are you hitting your deadlines? Are you receiving increases when you hit something out of the park (great review)?
• Have a plan in case things change. If the environment is going south, have a backup plan.
  Businesses – What is another customer base you can tap into? Why aren’t you hitting them already?
  Executives – Is your resume up to date? Are you actively having lunch with colleagues outside of your company to survey the marketplace?

If you begin to attempt just one of these tips and MAKE ADJUSTMENTS, you’ll find that you’ll be winning the matches, rather than going home a loser.

Am I not getting this? I follow this news track often because I am very interested in this country’s future energy needs.

What I keep seeing is a concerted (and in my opinion, a highly misguided and uninformed) focus on alternative energy vehicles that still require energy from dirty energy sources. Let me explain:

Gasoline – This is a no brainer. Don’t even add what’s happening in the Gulf right now. Our attention to gasoline puts this country at risk by forcing us to do business with unstable countries. This should stop.

Hybrids - Great idea, but it still uses gasoline. And if you ever drove one, the pickup is not quite what you’d expect. And at the end of the day, the mileage is still equal (or surpassed) to a VW Polo Diesel (check it out). Also – just wait when you need to replace your batteries – there will be a lot of angry people out there.

Electric Cars – All I read today focuses on the Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Volt. Where will the electricity come from? The air? No – it will come from Oil, Coal, and Nuclear – all three are very dirty. And you have to plug them in everywhere since they only get 100 miles per charge.

So where do we go from here? I have three words: Honda FCX Clarity – the most important car since the car was invented.

Check out this video:

No Oil. No Gasoline. No Electricity. It runs on Hydrogen – the most abundant element in the universe and it spits out water vapor. How do we do it?

This should be Our Five Year Plan:

Step 1: Government subsidies (Manhattan Project) to help automakers retool to produce hydrogen cars. Begin to incrementally tax gasoline to painfully move the public to hydrogen. Trucks can still use diesel (or natural gas) – we can focus on them in the second round.
Step 2: All gas stations are refitted not to dispense gasoline, but to dispense liquid hydrogen.
Step 3: State rebates to help owners purchase and own new hydrogen cars (you can probably throw in federal too).
Step 4: Convert all refining stations that turn petroleum into gasoline into refining stations that turn water/seawater into hydrogen. Same energy expended – different results.
Step 5: Leverage the existing distribution system for gasoline to now carry hydrogen.
Step 6: Slowly wean the American public off gasoline – still have it around – just for antique cars – and keep it really expensive.

It’s that easy – or am I missing something in my logic?

I know it will be a hard 5 years – but no harder than the trillions we have spent on wars to keep the oil flowing.

One of the topics that I discussed with many of them was my theory that our world is changing.

It’s not a new idea – everyone knows that the world is changing. It changes everyday. You have two choices:

RIDE THE ROLLERCOASTER OR DRIVE YOUR LIFE!

What will you choose? Let’s look at each one:

RIDE THE ROLLERCOASTER

• It’s easy. Someone else does all the work. You get to put your feet up and enjoy the ride.
• Someone else makes all the decisions for you. Some might not be beneficial to you.
• When you start to feel insecure about the direction you’re taking, there is nothing you can do. Someone else is in control.
• When things start to go south and you definitely do not like the position you’re in, tough beans.
• When the world around you starts to radically change - you can’t do much – you’re still on the ride.
• When you see all of your friends and colleagues move to better situations – you realize you don’t know how to stop the ride.
• When processes, systems, whole ecosystems fail and fall around you – THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO.

This is happening right now in Publishing. Newspapers. Bookstores. Music Stores. Video Stores. Finance. IT. Travel. And many, many other fields . . .

Rollercoasters never really go anywhere. They go up and down, left and right, but at the end of the ride, you are right back where you started. Do you want your job to be like that? Your career? Your life? I don’t think so. Let’s look at an alternative:

DRIVE YOUR LIFE

• It’s scary. There is no map. You chart your course.
• It has its peaks and valleys. You are energized when things are good and enervated when things are bad. But you can change the game.
• If you see other systems, people, processes change, you can assess what’s happening and make modifications to your journey.
• You make all of your decisions. You probably get input to help you weigh each alternative, but in the end, it’s up to you.
• You want to go left? Go left. You want to go right? Go right. You are in control at all times.
• You decide who you want to work with, who you don’t want to work with, where you want to go, what you want to do – no one else. That may be energizing or scary.
• You are your own safety net. You catch yourself when you fall (or fail). But you pick yourself up and start again. It’s a learning experience. Not a failure.

So . . . who do you want to be today? Start making THE DECISION. Your job, career, and life depend on it.

My 13 year-old son is presenting today at school

This morning, I threw together some presentation points for him to brush up on during his ride to school. I thought I would share them with you:

1. Smile. Smile. Smile. The more that you smile, the more relaxed you’ll be. In addition, your audience will also feel relaxed and better engage with your presentation.
2. Have Fun. Most presenters are afraid to have fun with the audience. You have a wonderful sense of humor (from your Mom and Dad) – use it! But not too much (like your Dad).
3. Move Around. Most presenters are stiff and formal like Frankenstein. You need to engage the audience by moving around – move from the left side of the screen to the right side. Move closer to the audience (when you are making an important point) and then move back. No dancing though – keep it graceful.
4. Use Your Hands. Your mouth should not be the only thing moving. Keep your hands moving at all times. Use them to shape your points, move them gracefully. Not too much – don’t act as if you have a medical condition.
5. Keep Eye Contact With The Audience. Don’t just stare at the pretty girls – have your eyes bounce around from one audience member to another, smile (see tip #1), and keep bouncing your eyes. You will get everyone’s attention – that’s what you’re shooting for.
6. Try Not To Read The Screen. You can glance quickly at it – get your point – then turn back to the audience and paraphrase the information. You’ve been practicing for many days (hopefully!) – trust yourself and instincts – you WILL remember each point.
7. Take It Easy – You Are Not Sprinting, It’s A Marathon. You have lots of time – don’t speed through it. Frequently catch yourself and SLOW IT DOWN. Everyone tends to speed up their speaking – slow it down and have fun. Pause often, catch your breath, and then move onto the next point.
8. Engage The Audience (if you can). Ask them questions like: “How many of you have had this problem?” – Raise your hand and invite the audience members to raise their hand too.
9. Drink Water. Have a water bottle up there – trust me – you WILL have dry mouth. Drink at your pauses. Having a dry mouth coughing fit in front of an audience is not pretty.
10. You’re Going To Knock It Out Of The Park. Trust Me.
I see all types of presenters all the time. Most are awful – but some really shine. The reason? They not only believe and love the subject their speaking about — they also truly enjoy to engage an audience. You have that quality in your DNA.

Much Love – Dad

P.S. My son will be following this post all day – so please leave a special comment! Thanks!

• People will wander in.
• You are opening your world to them.
• You are showing them a piece of your universe.
• You are showing them that you are open to their presence (and not closed like a shut door would).

I took my brother’s advice and kept my door open whenever I was in my room. It might have impacted my grades a bit, but I was probably friends with 80-90% of the students on campus (it was a small, liberal arts school).

Now let’s apply this to your business — how can you “leave your door open whenever possible”? Here are some ideas:

• Be open to your current clients/customers. Make it easy for them to contact and talk to you.
• Ask for feedback often. The most successful businesses are the ones that frequently inquire and act upon customer feedback.
• If you can, meet with your clients face-to-face. I coach primarily over the phone, but I’ve been breaking that box and meeting with clients in-person. Guess what? They love it!
• Be flexible with your business model. When things are working and you’re hitting a wall, leave the door open to new ideas and ways to do things.
• When out in the world, hide the sunglasses, iPod, newspaper. Put on a smile and interact with others. You will find yourself meeting a lot of new and interesting people.
• Ensure that any client/customer touchpoint encourages connection and conversation. Like your website, your business card, your email signature, your brochure. They should all have a direct line to you.
• Use social media (like Twitter, Linked In, Facebook, etc.) to make yourself more available to instantaneous communication with your clients and colleagues.
• Play your music loud to attract others. What I really mean here is to actively behave in a way to encourage others to find you and walk in your location. Have open houses often, invite groups to your location, mix it up with other people!
• Teach your colleagues and team to leave their doors open too. You’ll find that many of them have a ‘closed door’ mentality.

Bottom line, by just leaving your ‘door’ open, you are opening yourself up to many new exciting and lucrative possibilities that would normally walk right on by.

P.S. If you think of any other “leave your door open whenever possible.” ideas, let me know!